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[5]
you have so far fallen short of following these principles of rhetoric that, though you profess to defend Busiris, you have not only failed to absolve him of the calumny with which he is attacked, but have even imputed to him a lawlessness of such enormity that it is impossible for one to invent wickedness more atrocious. For the other writers whose aim was to malign him went only so far in their abuse as to charge him with sacrificing the strangers1 who came to his country; you, however, accused him of actually devouring his victims. And when your purpose was to accuse Socrates, as if you wished to praise him, you gave Alcibiades to him as a pupil who, as far as anybody observed, never was taught by Socrates,2 but that Alcibiades far excelled all his contemporaries all would agree.

1 For the legend of Busiris see Apollod. 2.5.7 and Hdt. 2.45. Busiris, in obedience to an oracle, sacrificed strangers on the altar of Zeus. Herodotus doubts the truth of the legend that the Egyptians sacrificed men.

2 Alcibiades, if not a disciple of Socrates, was intimately associated with the philosopher; cf. Plat. Sym. For praise of Alcibiades see Isoc. 16.

Isocrates. Isocrates with an English Translation in three volumes, by George Norlin, Ph.D., LL.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1980.

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